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giovedì 18 settembre 2014

Renzi Jobs Act ready to tackle unions' sacred cow

Poletti says no decision made on Article 18 job protections

(ANSA)
- Rome, September 17 - Labour Minister Giuliano Poletti tried to calm
angry trade unions Wednesday by saying that no decision has been made
as yet on scaling back job protections contained in existing Italian
law. "When the time comes, we will discuss this," he told
the Lower House after unions threatened strikes if job protections
contained in Article 18 of the 1970s Worker's Statute are eliminated
in the new Jobs Act. Premier Matteo Renzi was widely reported to have
threatened to scale back Article 18 by decree to override
parliamentary objections, although Cabinet Secretary Graziano Delrio
denied this on a Tuesday night talk show.

Businesses
have long argued that the article is a major stumbling block for
creating permanent jobs because they say it makes it impossible to
lay off employees once they have been hired. Such arguments have
gained considerable attention in recent years given the long-running
weakness in the Italian economy, now in its third recession since
2008. But unions say that Article 18 is sacred and they will fight to
protect provisions that say companies with over 15 employees that
fire someone without just cause must give them their job back.

Abrogating
Article 18 of the Worker's Statute to lower job protection is "a
scalp to take to the EU's free-market hawks," said Susanna
Camusso, leader of Italy's largest union federation CGIL. A
rapporteur added fuel to the fire Wednesday when he said that under a
new provision, the Jobs Act would require compensation - but not the
rehiring - of workers judged by a court to have been unjustly fired
from companies with more than 15 employees. "There is a revision
of the protection (for workers) with open-ended contracts," said
Maurizio Sacconi, the rapporteur of an enabling law linked to the
government's Jobs Act. Many past Italian governments have tried to
amend Article 18 but unions have always managed to fend off these
attempts. Meanwhile, Renzi's government presented two other
amendments to its Jobs Act which the government said are aimed at
increasing worker protection.

One
stipulated that the eventual introduction of "a minimum hourly
payment" for Italian workers would also apply to freelancers who
regularly work for a company under a so-called Co.Co.Co contract. The
amendment added that this would apply even if the minimum wage were
introduced "on an experimental basis". Another amendment
was designed to reward seniority by providing for increased job
protections as an employee's tenure increases. That amendment called
for "open-ended contracts" rather than the temporary or
freelance contracts that are very popular now with employers.